Building a New Africa

Since 2000, the GDP of African countries has been expanding quickly. With a growing middle class and a burgeoning youth population, Africa is set to become the world's next major centre of economic growth. But for this to happen, African states need to ensure they have policies that favour trade regionally on the continent and internationally, that infrastructure is built up, that measures for good governance are in place, that skills and technology are expanding, that there is a dynamic private sector, that fragility within states is diminishing, that agriculture and food security are being addressed, and that gender issues are being dealt with. The list seems long, but it is not an impossible agenda. A generation ago some of today's Asian success stories resembled in many ways African states.

This book is a compilation of selected speeches delivered by African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka since 2005. Under his presidency the Bank has brought its attention to bear on these priorities and is making solid headway in African economic development. These speeches explain in his own words his reasoning about why he has chosen to emphasise certain priorities and what he expects the outcome should be.